Selling Etiquette - Delivery/Postage Charge

I recently sold a set of Alloy wheels on Ebay; they were listed for £400+£60 shipping and the buyer offered £300 + the £60 shipping to Huddersfield, which I agreed to.

As chance would have it, I had to go to Derby this week for work and so I cancelled the shipping company (£53 via TNT), took my own car, and took the wheels with me to deliver in person. All went as planned, but the buyer has now contacted me asking for me to refund the postage/shipping charge...

Perhaps naively, I assumed that because I was able to deliver, I'd (for once) lucked out and that I could pocket myself a few extra ££ in exchange for a little extra inconvenience.

I see both sides, I get why he wanted the cash, he was thinking that you arent out of pocket cos you didnt pay postage, I'd go back and say sure I'll refund the cost but deduct it from the time/petrol bill for delivering in person. With a nice cheeky smile!

Cheapest quote I got was £8.50+VAT per wheel, or £75 for the four together. This means I have to package them individually, so 4*5m roll of bubble wrap at £5.30 per roll, total cost inc packaging is £15 per wheel...for a 1 day courier, that price went upto £11.60+vat, which is give or take £53.

None of these costs include insurance beyond the £35-£50 standard.

So whichever way you look at it, I was going to be out of pocket without even considering the day off waiting for the courier.

He paid for delivery and they were delivered, end of story. I'd also agree that you no doubt took more care than a courier would.

As above, offer to refund the delivery charge as long as he agrees to foot the bill for your time and petrol. According to Google maps it's about 2.5 hours from Bath to Derby and 147 miles. 5 hour round trip and 300 miles worth of petrol....

Truth is, many ebay sellers load the postage costs up in order to reduce fees (I know, this is being taken away), so he probably wasn't really thinking about postage costs at all, just the end cost to him.

At the end of the day, he got the goods on time and without any hassle (postcard through door, trip to depot etc), so I think he has little to complain about.

Just to clarify, I get paid a fixed amount (no overtime) for 37 hours, and was at Derby (from Bath) for an 09:30 meeting which finished at 15:00. I'd worked my allotted hours (even without considering the return commute) by the time I left the meeting. I also used my own car (so no company fuel) to deliver the wheels.

How does the buyer know that you did not use a courier?
A courier doesn't always have a uniform and sign written van.
I'm guessing that you told the buyer that you were delivering yourself.
If so, that's where you went wrong!
You should have pretended to be a one man band that does deliveries. That would have saved all the grief.
At the end of the day he agreed to pay for delivery and the wheels were delivered to him so tell him to do one and next time cover your arse a bit better

OP - how did the buyer pay, seems a bit odd asking for refund after delivery unless paypal was involved? If it was a paypal payment I would exercise extreme caution & at least offer to split the difference or even a full refund of delivery charge as you are currently at risk of them raising a dispute & you losing the full £360 - make sure you keep the email trail regarding the refund so you can prove delivery to small claims court if they do decide to diddle you.

Price asked was £460 including delivery, price paid was £60 and he wants to pull your pants down and get them for £300?
Tell him your time costs £20 an hour & £0.45 per mile for petrol etc. Did he really expect because they were personally delivered to be refunded the delivery?
Use these two words in any further correspondence "get" and "bent".
*edit* mean to add, if he paid cash tell him to swivel, if he paid paypal, you may be stuffed.

Daffy - Member
Just to clarify, there was no pre-arranged courier or delivery date.

The buyer paid for it to be delivered by courier at a certain rate which afaik was agreed by the buyer. You then changed that delivery method WITHOUT the buyer's prior knowledge and/or agreement and this is the point the buyer is making.

If it were me i'd calculate the cost of the delivery method you used and credit/charge the buyer the difference. I fail to see how the buyer can complain that way.